Heroesofthestorm Wiki:Notability
Heroes of the Storm incorporates elements from the universes of Blizzard Entertainment. Most obvious of these are its heroes, but there are others that may be more subtle. Locations, species, equipment, etc. One should keep in mind however, that this is a wiki for Heroes of the Storm, not for Blizzard Entertainment as a whole, or its franchises. This does not prohibit users from making articles based on material from these universes outside its heroes, but when making them, should ask themselves two questions: *Is this article relevant to gameplay? *Is this article relevant to lore? If the answer to at least one of these questions is yes, it is generally acceptable to create an article and/or incorporate information into an existing article. However, this is not a blank cheque. The following information discusses what type of information is relevant, and what isn't. Gameplay Heroes of the Storm is referred to as Blizzard as a "hero brawler." This genre is otherwise referred to as "MOBA" (mobile online battle arena), "ARTS" (action real-time strategy) or "DotA-style game" (a reference to the original mod which popularized the genre). These games are categorized by the use of a single hero character by the player, minions (waves of cannon fodder), structures that act as defenses/creators of minions, and creeps, which can be 'farmed' for experience points. This takes place on a closed map, often divided into points of access called "lanes." The object of each team of heroes is to destroy the opposing team's main structure (in the case of Heroes of the Storm, its palace). As a general guideline, any creation of any gameplay-based article should carry relevance to at least one of these elements. Examples include: *Heroes: Every hero present in the game has an article *Minions: A blanket category for the standard minions spawned at each base. *Cannon tower: An example of a defensive structure *Siege giant: An example of a creep *Blackheart's Bay: An example of a map/arena, referred to in the game as a battleground Note that for heroes abilities should be confined to their own pages, and the term "minions," as stated above, covers the three forms of minions (footman, archer, spellcaster) that spawn from a base. But otherwise, these types of articles are perfectly acceptable and should be encouraged. Lore Uther may not want to think about the how's and why's of the Nexus, but this wiki does not have the same luxury. Heroes of the Storm incorporates elements from the universes of Blizzard Entertainment, but also some original elements itself. Each of its battlegrounds has a story behind it. The Nexus operates by its own rules. So in regards to the inclusion/creation of information, the following must be considered: *Is this information unique to Heroes of the Storm? *Is this information taken from one of the Blizzard universes? If it is a case of the former, then it warrants inclusion, if enough information is present to justify a separate article. If it is the case of the latter, care must be taken. If so, the inclusion of such information is acceptable: *Hero Backgrounds: These are taken verbatim from hero descriptions in the game. They are fine to include, but should not be altered. While many heroes in the game have detailed backgrounds in their host universes, this wiki is only concerned with how these backgrounds are portrayed in the game itself. *Quotes and Facts: Blizzard itself has provided lists of facts for various heroes. These are fine to be copied. Other trivia relevant to a hero may find its way into these sections, but what counts as notable trivia is a potential gray area, and must be considered before adding. At any rate, such trivia should relate to Heroes of the Storm, at least partially. *It is quite acceptable to post an interwiki link. E.g. the page for Illidan may have an external link for his appearance in Warcraft, as provided on the Warcraft wiki. Outside of hero pages, there are still elements of Blizzard's universes that may be sighted/mentioned. Note that a sighting/mention of something from these universes is not reason in of itself for inclusion. For instance, Raynor mentions the protoss nexus in the game's tutorial, which is a structure from the StarCraft series. This is not reason in of itself to create an article, as information provided in Heroes of the Storm alone simply provides that this structure exists in another host universe, and any creation of an article could only either reference this, or copy-paste information from the StarCraft universe itself. It is acceptable however, to note the similarity in the wiki's own Nexus article (the world, as opposed to the structure). This is but one example. Elements of Blizzard universes are perfectly acceptable to mention. But the lore of Heroes of the Storm is primarily concerned with its own world. Only when something becomes part of that world and/or is affected by it, does it warrant inclusion. Blurb Lore In Heroes of the Storm, as with many other MOBA games, it is common to find 'flavor text.' These entries can be found for skins, mounts, etc. This is not an uncommon practice in the MOBA genre, but how these blurbs relate to a game's lore (if at all), may vary. Often, such blurbs are confined to a single page, e.g. "John Doe loved going to the Fields of Happiness. Its cool breeze always soothed him." By itself, this does not justify a Fields of Happiness Page, as all information for the Fields is found on John Doe's page. However, another character named Jane Doe has the following information: "Jane Doe hated going to the Fields of Happiness. Its murky waters always churned her stomach." Such information would justify a Fields of Happiness article, because we can infer from these two sets of information that the Fields have a cool breeze and murky waters, not to mention that at least two people have visited them. This sum total of information cannot be covered on either John or Jane's page, hence the need for a page to compile it. In the event of flavor text unique to a single individual, such text may still be incorporated into/noted in existing articles. For instance, the kaijo skin for Diablo mentions "Neo Tristram." Even if this settlement was mentioned on more than one page, it would be preferable to note it in the Tristram article (which should happen anyway). However, if information on Neo Tristram was brought up repeatedly and spread across different pages, then it could be justified in creating a separate article for it. But at the least, 'blurb lore' should have at least two blurbs on two pages before creating a separate article for it, provided that such information cannot be incorporated into a pre-existing single article. Location Lore It is not uncommon to mention the worlds, sectors, realms, of Blizzard's host universes. Azeroth, Sanctuary, Korhal, etc. In general, these mentions are not in themselves justification for articles for similar reasons as 'race lore' - any information is exclusive to their host universes. Locations unique to the Nexus can justify location articles, provided they meet the standards of 'blurb lore', or are Battlegrounds, in which case inclusion is automatic. Race Lore Various species populated the universes of Blizzard. The Nexus itself has a few as well. That being said, race articles should not be created except in the following circumstances: #The species is native to the Nexus (e.g. humans and undead) #The species has specific lore provided that distinguishes itself from any host species of a host universe (e.g. goblins, while also found in the Warcraft universe, had specific lore provided for them in early builds of Heroes of the Storm) #The relevant information is not already covered by pre-existing information in a creep/minion article (e.g. ogre kings do not justify an ogre article, as there is no lore for Nexus ogres beyond the kings themselves, not to mention that they too are from an earlier build). *As stated above, goblins are also found in the Warcraft universe. Humans and undead are also found in many of its universes In the event of the creation of a race article that has a counterpart in one of Blizzard's universes, no lore is to be incorporated from said counterpart in said universe. This is because: #What is true for one universe is not necessarily true for the other. #It will inevitably be a repeat of any lore native to that host universe. #A list of external links will be provided on the host article (e.g. a human article would have a link to humans/terrans of the Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft wikis), allowing users to find additional information without forcing said information on them or cluttering up the article. *That being said, the heroes sucked into the Nexus are of their own universes, representing the variety of creatures found in them. While not enough to justify race-based articles by themselves, they are enough to justify race-based categories, and are sorted into them. These categories are sorted in accordance with their 'core species.' This is defined as such: #Core species corresponds to how the hero is portrayed in their default skin in the game For instance, Arthas is an undead human, but is undead at his 'core' per his default portrayal, so should only be categorized as undead. #Only one species category is allowed per hero except in special circumstances such as Rexxar (half-ogre, half-orc, with no 'core' to distinguish between them). This evades the semantics that variant skins bring in regards to species appearance. For instance, Kerrigan is zerg at her 'core', but possesses a succubus skin, which is a type of demon found in the Warcraft and Diablo universes. Despite this, she is only classified as "zerg." The skin is academic to such a category. *For categories themselves, as mentioned above, only one species category per hero. These species categories have the following considerations: #An umbrella term should be used (e.g. a single elf category covers all elf kindreds of the Warcraft setting, and "humans" covers terrans of the StarCraft setting also) #Categories exist as sub-categories of Category: Heroes (as they are listing a sub-set of heroes), and as sub-categories of their host universe categories (e.g. Category: Demons is a sub-category of the Warcraft and Diablo categories) #In the event of these categories overlapping with articles (e.g. a human article and a human category), a link to the category should be provided from the host article, but not listed in the article itself. This saves editing time, and a category is listing human heroes anyway. Variant Lore There is an exception to the race and location lores up above, that also takes its cues from blurb lore. Various locations/individuals are mentioned to have counterparts/alternate histories. For instance, the flavor text of the cyberwolf mount mentions "holo-orcs" of "Digi Draenor." These are variants of orcs and their homeworld of Draenor respectively. By itself, the blurb does not justify article creation, as its flavor text is confined to its own entry. However, if Draenor is effectively being mentioned in more than one location, and has unique lore (as with the holo-orcs), it does justify article creation. In which case, the following standards are applied: *The article title always uses the blanket term (e.g. in the above case, orcs/Draenor would be the blanket titles, while holo-orcs/Digi Draenor would be sub-sections, or simply mentioned). In the event of this information overlapping with elements of a race native to the Nexus (humans, undead, etc.), a clear distinction must be made within the article. 'Standard undead lore' (from any Blizzard setting) does not warrant inclusion by itself into a Heroes of the Storm article (which is focused on the undead of the Nexus), but in the event of variant undead lore for these settings that match outright stated lore, it may be included, but must be kept distinctly separate. *Any information in these articles may only come from what is mentioned in Heroes of the Storm directly. This means that any information must be sourced internally to information on orcs/Draenor that the game itself provides. This serves to keep the article focused, and provides a clear distinction of what to include and what not to. *Such articles should include an external link to their respective host wiki (e.g. Draenor and orc would lead to their Warcraft wiki pages). This allows users to get the full information they need, while the article itself focuses on information that Heroes of the Storm itself provides. Category: Help